Take a walk through the historic village of Montecreto and immerse yourself in its history!
The best way to experience our villages and discover all their secrets is to walk through their streets, passing by oratories, churches, ancient streets, and castles. There is so much history on every corner, telling their past and present.
In Montecreto, we recommend climbing up Via Castello to enjoy the fantastic views, and also to explore the many points of interest which can be seen along the way.
Medieval fortified road
The road that leads from the square to the site of the ancient medieval fortress is the only example in the entire area of Frignano of a fortified nucleus in which the houses themselves, standing so tightly together, form a truly impenetrable curtain. The sandstone-flagged road is lined to either side by two rows of centuries-old houses which feature portals, heraldic symbols, votive shrines and re-used fragments of stone typical of medieval and Renaissance building styles in the area of Frignano.
Montecreto Castle (at the top of Via Castello)
Traces of the medieval castle or “Fortress” of Montecreto can still be seen today at the top of the hill, where Via Castello ends. The fortification was centred around the innermost keep, the oldest part of the castle, which was later transformed into a bell tower and still exists to this day. You can see how the castle was extended over the years by tracing the outline of several circles of walls. These walls would have enclosed the oldest nucleus of the castle (the podium of the fortress), as well as Via Castello. Nowadays, looking out from the keep, it is interesting to spot other castles and towers which were once part of a defensive look-out system against enemy attack.
The parish church of St John the Baptist also stands on the “podium” of the fortress; the church was almost entirely renovated in the seventeenth century, concealing much of the original building. There are many works of art to be seen inside the church, such as the column-bearing lions which once supported the pillars of the fortress portal (XIV century), the Tuscan-school baptismal font (XVI century), the arch and fresco from the destroyed Oratory of St Roch (XVI century), the Tuscan-school sandstone pulpit (XVI century), the Tuscan-school medieval crucifix (XIV-XV century) and several interesting altar pieces including a painting by the sixteenth-century artist Ascanio Magnanini, who was from the nearby village of Fanano.
The Convent (Via Castello)
The ancient Convent of the Dominican Sisters, dating back to the 16th century, stands on Via Castello; it consists of a central block which runs alongside the road, an internal garden and a ring of walls.
The history of Montecreto Convent began in 1550, when a 60-year-old widow, Domenica Santini, retired to a life of prayer and solitude in a small house belonging to her near the parish church. Before long, nine young women between the ages of fourteen and thirty followed Santini’s example, thus starting the first community of nuns.
The nuns lived on earnings from manual work and never left the house, except to go to mass.
Following the construction of the church, which still stands next to the convent today, in 1571 the Bishop of Modena placed the nuns under the protection of St Dominic, bestowing on them the Dominican habit and the rules of the order.
Life at the convent continued peacefully for about two centuries, until a dark period of political and military turbulence, during which the nuns were expelled and returned to their homes. In 1882, Don Luciano Mucci of Montecreto bought the convent at auction and donated it to the nuns, who returned there for good.
During those difficult years, the nuns’ good work really stood out.
They established a boarding school, as well as a primary school for girls, which went from being private to public in 1872, and was run by the nuns until 1923. A small pharmacy was also opened, but this closed in 1921 due to repeated complaints from the pharmacist in Sestola.
In 1917, the nuns also opened a nursery school, which remained open until a few decades ago.
In the 1920s, the nuns had to face the difficult transition from cloistered life to active life.
In more recent times, the first middle school in the Upper Frignano area was established in the 1950s, and this was to lead to the nuns having a more discreet yet continuous presence in all the religious activities of the village.
Sadly, the convent complex has been closed since the end of 2015, the nuns leaving due to a steep decline in numbers.
Casa Borra (Via Castello):
Casa Borra is the most important historical residence in the village. This large building dates to the 16th and 17th centuries, and consists of two residential wings with wide eaves, supported by imposing wooden rafters, overhanging an internal courtyard. Where the roofs of the two wings join, there stands a dovecote, with a sandstone stringcourse dividing the rooms below from the dovecote itself. On every corner of the house, just below the roof corbels, you can see some ‘marcolfe’ or masks carved from stone, which symbolically guarded the house and its habitants, warding off evil spirits.
